Reminder: You CAN speed up the game and HIDE the bottom UI panels.

Dear all, This is a routine reminder of certain features that seemed somewhat hard to locate or utilize.

Speeding up the game

You could speed up the game by pressing '\' (default). Speeds are 1x, 1.5x and 2x. When in 2x, everything happens 2x faster, enemies also come 2x faster as well. Why did we want to make the game appear to be slow? Well, think of this - you've come up with an amazing interception/flank counter-offensive against the enemy. He's approaching with his fleet, large destroyers and numerous frigates. You can attack him from the flanks or rear but you need to time your attack well lest they discover your fleet first. Now, you're right behind them, your gunships open fire on their rear. They start to turn around to face you. Then suddenly, you bring in another fleet from their rear (which was their front) and they're caught in a pincer attack. At 2X, this strategem is much harder to pull off unless you have superhuman reflexes which kinda defeats the purpose of this game - which is strategy first, number of actions second.

Hiding the UI

The bottom set of panels can be hidden. The feature was added in V1.08b-4 as a "bonus" to resolve the issue of people finding it too clunky. I cannot change the design of the UI without going through a proper process either. Thus, to hide the UI, press Ctrl+Page Down. That'll bring the UI down to a certain level. It'll still show the most important information such as power, credits, command points and upgrades researched. But it'll hide details like ship HP, hangar details and fleet views and so on... Press Ctrl+Page Up to bring back the UI.

Conclusion

These features to be honest, were added much later AFTER the game was released. That's why they seemed to be out of place. But nevertheless, we'll remind everyone from time to time that they're actually there. Have a nice day! Jeremy